DAILY DIRT: Some of the nation’s worst gangsters were found behind the headlines

Never hear of “Kid Twist” or “The Pig?” Please read on … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 649 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Ever since I was a wee lad, gangster movies have always intrigued me.

My favorite actor growing up was James Cagney, primarily for his portrayal of numerous hoodlums in those old — but classic — shoot ’em up films from the 1930s, memorable cinematic efforts like “Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)” and “The Public Enemy (1931)”.

Once I got older I became equally intrigued by the real-life criminals that some — heck, maybe all — of those Cagney-esque efforts were based upon. And while everyone was familiar with the likes of Al Capone, John Dillinger and Vito Genovese, I often found myself researching some of the equally notorious, but less publicized thugs of not only the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, but the 1950s, 1960s and beyond.

Once the Mafioso more or less went mainstream and was more prevalent in media reports, my interest grew even more. I rarely met a report on a gangster that I found uninteresting.

Over the course of my lifetime, here are a few of the gangsters who may have escaped most of the headlines you may have seen, but nonetheless earned every year of prison they served — or the brutal death they eventually encountered:

Abe “Kid Twist” Reles: Reles was not a man you wanted to rub shoulders with. The New York hitman worked for the notorious group, Murder, Inc. Born in 1906, Reles was unpredictable and violent, both traits that worked well in his chosen line of employment. Between the 1930s and 1940, “Kid Twist,” as Reles was known, was believed to have murdered up to 1,000 people. That included a parking lot employee who did nothing but took too long to bring Reles’ car.

favorite way to murder? An ice pick rammed into his victim’s brain through one of their ears. Reles eventually became a government informant to avoid the death penalty after being caught. Of course, this traitorous event led to his death in 1941.

Giovanni “The Pig” Brusca: The Sicilian gangster was nicknamed “The Pig” because of his disheveled looks and malicious behavior. He claims to have murdered up to 200 people during his time as a hitman. Brusca’s victims were subjected to some of the most heinous crimes ever recorded. He allegedly murdered a 23-year-old pregnant woman after torturing her boyfriend.

But Brusca’s most horrendous murder was that of 12-year-old Giuseppe Di Matteo. Brusca kidnapped the boy in 1993 after the boy’s father collaborated with authorities. He kept the young boy hostage for two years before strangling him and then throwing his body into acid.

Sam “Mad Sam” DeStefano: DeStefano started as a petty criminal. In 1930, DeStefano joined the Chicago Outfit, and not long after he became the city’s very first loan shark. Mad Sam would lend money to vulnerable clients who he knew couldn’t pay him back. And when his clients failed to pay, Mad Sam would take delight in killing them.

DeStefano was a sociopathic killer who would take his victims down into a soundproof chamber in his basement. There he would torture them until they died, and many people say he enjoyed killing so much that he’d foam at the mouth. He was eventually arrested for murder, but before he could appear before the judge, he was killed by his associates — probably to stop him from becoming another mafia government informant.

Charles Voyde Harrelson: This guy really doesn’t deserve hall of fame status, but I wanted to include him because he was actor Woody Harrelson’s father — and a convicted hitman. Harrelson was sentenced to two life sentences in prison after being found guilty for murdering a U.S. district judge in May 1979. Harrelson eventually died while in prison in 2007, at the age of 69.

Sam “MoMo” Giancana: For those who always believed there was a link between the Kennedy family and organize, Giancana is one of the key figures you may want to investigate.

It’s believed that before he turned 20, Giancana had already committed at least 20 murders and been arrested more than 70 times. Giancana eventually took over as head of the Chicago Outfit. 

Giancana was enlisted by Joseph P. Kennedy to help secure votes for his son John F. Kennedy’s presidential run in 1960. But then he was said to be outraged when JFK allowed his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, to go after organized crime units as the new Attorney General. 

Giancana also refused to testify against the mob and went to prison for a short time in the 1950s. He then moved to Mexico, came back in 1974 to offer his testimony of the C.I.A.’s attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro, and was assassinated himself in 1975.

(Information pertaining to the aforementioned criminals was gathered from a variety of sources, including www.onechicagocenter.com.)

2. We’re rapidly nearing the halfway point of the MLB season.

Here’s who we think the playoff teams will be in each league:

National League

Division champs

East: Atlanta. Braves are arguable the best-balanced team in all of baseball.

Central: Milwaukee. As great of a story as it would be, Cincinnati will not win this division. The Reds simply don’t the arms to go with that Elly De La Cruz-led offense.

West: Los Angeles. Dodgers fan or not, you have to give it up for this organization in the way it keeps manufacturing starting pitchers. Who doesn’t love Emmet Sheehan?

Wild cards: Arizona, San Francisco, Miami.

American League

East: Tampa Bay. The Rays have a shot at the MLB record of 116 wins.

Central: Minnesota. And remember, these guys traded away the modern-day Tony Gwynn: Luis Arraez.

West: Texas. Who would have thought this was possible without Jacob De Grom?

Wild cards: Baltimore, Houston, New York.

3. Well, well, well … we’ve had quite a little shakeup in the 2023 Great Plate Debate over the last week.

The never-ending search for the top license plates in West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri produced new bronze, aluminum and cardboard medals:

• Gold medal: U LIED.
• Silver medal: STINK.
• Bronze medal: B TANGY.
• Aluminum medal: OWN IT.
• Cardboard medal: FLYING.

This week’s honorable mentions:

• SAX 89
• DOC 1
• ICVC 1
• BROFAM
• NASTYYY

Steve Thought O’ The Day — Remember Tina Louise? She played Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island.” She’s 89 now, but I saw her Monday in one of her first major acting performances in the 1959 film “The Hangman” with Robert Taylor. She was 25 at the time. Louise is the last living member of the cast that made up “Gilligan’s Island,” which ran 1964-67 on CBS-TV.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Editing his copy is the equivalent of a three hour tour…a three hour tour.